Cabbage Soup Diet: Take 2

When I first started my new healthy lifestyle I decided to kick things off with a very restrictive diet my friend Leah had recommended. It is called the Cabbage Soup Diet. For one week you are allowed to eat as much cabbage soup as you'd like (the recipe and all the info can be found at www.cabbage-soup-diet.com) and other specific foods each day as follows:

• Day 1: All the fruit you'd like, except bananas
• Day 2: All the veggies you'd like, avoiding beans, corn and peas, and a baked potato with butter for dinner
• Day 3: All the fruit and veggies you'd like (minus the above restrictions)
• Day 4: Up to 8 bananas and all the skim milk you'd like
• Day 5: 10-20oz of beef (you can substitute chicken or fish if you don't like red meat) and up to 6 tomatoes (I think I ate one lol)
• Day 6: 2-3 steaks (or other protein) and leafy greens
• Day 7: 2 cups of brown rice and all the veggies you'd like

You can drink unsweetened tea, black coffee, water, or unsweetened fruit juice (in moderation)

Sounds a little crazy I know.  But I wanted to dive head first into the whole diet thing and break my poor eating habits instead of trying to make healthy choices on my own. As some of you know I work in the prepared foods department at Dave's Marketplace. I am CONSTANTLY surrounded by delicious unhealthy food. To make matters worse the bakery department shares the same area as the kitchen and for someone with a sweet tooth the temptations are endless! Muffins (only 56g of fat per muffin!), danish, cookies, butter coated provolone cheese rolls, general tso's chicken, macaroni and cheese (my fav!)....ARG!

So anyway, despite being slightly miserable a few days out of the week and getting some headaches I completed the diet and lost 12.5lbs! In one week! Now my company is currently doing a Biggest Loser competition. The person who loses the biggest percentage of weight wins $1000, and the store with the biggest percentage overall gets a night out on the town (I'm still not sure what that includes but I won't turn it down!) This is the final week of the competition, so what did I decide to do? The Cabbage Soup Diet again...

Why did I do this? haha

Today was day 3 and I haven't cheated, besides having a sugar free red bull today (the caffeine withdrawals were getting to me) but boy am I cranky! I don't know if it's the lack of sugar and caffeine, or the fact that I've only eaten 2 cups of fruit and a bowl of cabbage soup all day but man, don't cross me today! Hopefully it will all be worth it. I'm not even in the top 5 for the individual winner but my store is in the lead and I want to keep it that way! Besides, I want to take advantage of the motivation the competition gives me while I still can.

Tomorrow is banana and milk day, and my bananas are still green. Damn it! Last time I made a banana smoothie for breakfast and added a little almond and vanilla extracts. (That's probably not allowed but come on, only plain bananas and milk all day? No thanks.) I don't know what I'll do if my bananas don't magically ripen over night. Dave's bananas are always under ripe and I have to be at work before Stop & Shop opens. (Yay 6am shifts!) Tomorrow may be another cranky day. But it may make for an interesting entry!